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Kennie B.

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Posts posted by Kennie B.

  1. Well, that was a real surprise last night!

     I came home from work, just in time for Jim Ober to call.  It seems that this weekend is the annual car show at the Art Center here in Pasadena.  Yes, that Art Center, Tom Kellogg's alma mater.  

    The theme this year is Red, White and Blue.  The colours represent three different nations regarding their colours of race competition; red-Italy, white-USA and blue for France.  There will be other nations cars too but the desire is for a highlighted group and among the American cars they really wanted a white Avanti due to Tom Kellogg being an alum.

     I had shown my car in '15 and wanted to show again but didn't think I would have my car ready in time.  Well, I just got her through teething pains with the new engine.  Had I made plans earlier, no doubt something would have delayed me and I'd have been a no-show.  

    So, if you are in the L A area, come out on Sunday, it's a fun show. http://www.artcenter.edu/connect/events/car-classic-red-white-and-blue.html

  2. On 10/18/2017 at 4:18 AM, Gunslinger said:

    You can really do it right if you're willing to buy a first class ticket...install a Tremec 5-speed.  Even better performance and fuel economy...but forget about fuel economy...would you rather whimper about economy or do you want to be king of the road?  :P

    Excuse me, I'm a Baby Boomer and want it all!

  3. I just finished making this conversion myself.  Man oh man am I gald I did!

    The job is very straight forward, essentially all bolt in, no holes to cut nor brackets to weld.

    To make it a bit easier, my engine was in bad shape and had to come out.  This made it easier in that the flywheel bolts are different (longer) than the flex plate bolts.  To change, you will need to pull the pan and rear bearing cap.  Not impossible in the car, just a pain.  

    The brake pedal is different but get the clutch and brake pedal as a pair, they are shared with Larks that have hanging pedals.  There were several Larks at Chuck Naugel's that had them.  

    You will need to use a Borg & Beck pressure plate unless you get a 62 GT bellhousing, even them you will need to do some serious machine work.  At least I did.

     I had a local shop rework my driveshaft and supply me with a splined yoke for under $300.00 with sales tax included.

     If I had a better budget, I would have gone 5 speed but the spare engine I bought to build came with a T10 as well as bellhousing and flywheel.  Get the correct Hurst shifter linkage from Jon Myers or Dave Thibeault if you go T10.  I went cheap and am paying for it later.  There really isn't a Hust bolt in kit but Jon and Dave have it worked out.

    By next week I should have some pictures posted.

    Ken

  4. Tom, it looks like you and I think in similar ways.  If you haven't replaced the rupture prone surge tank with an overflow bottle, think about using that open space at the front end as the bracket mount for a catch bottle.

  5. On 8/6/2017 at 10:50 AM, mfg said:

    Wow, if memory serves me correctly, I think somewhere over one hundred.....but for the life of me I can't picture that many separate fiberglass pieces being needed to build an Avanti!

    I had heard 136 and as I am currently spending way too much time under the dash and in an empty engine bay, all these numbers seem realistic.  There are a lot of bonded seams on these cars even in production form!

  6. Good to see your continued and impressive progress.

    Here is a picture of the battery bracket I fabricted to hold the '96 Civic battery in.  What you see is version 1.3, since then I mounted the overflow bottle for the coolant, forward of the battery.

     

    IMG_0655.JPG

    IMG_0656.JPG

    IMG_0658.JPG

  7. The pull handle is located on the floor rise of the drivers side, passenger seat. It runs thru the rise and lays on the floor, goes under the rear panel, thru the gas tank compartment, then down to the trunk floor and is hidden under the carpet.

    Not quite the floor, down at the bottom of the left rear passenger arm rest. The rest is correct, once in the trunk there is a depression in the floor to allow the carpet to lay flat.

  8. Tom, welcome and congratulations on your new aquisition!

    I bought mine about a year and a half ago. It was a garage find, hadn't been driven any distance for over a decade. It came with a pretty full history. I have been bringing it back to life so I have a little recent experience of where you are about to go. Please note, I am no expert in these cars but am putting in the hours learning.

    I started with sending the carb and distributor out to Dave Thibuelt for a rebuild. While that was going on, I kept spraying the cylinders with Seafoam and slowly got the engine to turn over. If turned out not to be stuck but since I wasn't too sure, I played it safe.

    Also, while I was waiting for the carb, I bought a battery meant for a '96 Honda Civic. I had to make a custom battery hold down but the cranking power was the same but 13 lbs lighter than the 3EE battery my car requires. During this time I checked out what was working in the car's electrical system, looking for any shorts. None were found.

    The story runs on for quite a while but what I suggest for now is buy the factory owner's manual as well as parts book if you don't already have them. And don't hesitate to ask questions. These cars are odd but not impossible to learn to work on, just keep your eyes open and your witts sharp.

    Also, do NOT lean on the doors! The hinges are really fragile! Veteran owners are noticable for lightly lifting the door when closing and openning. And it doesn't take much to close these doors, the latches were sourced from MB.

    The rear side windows, take very good care of the rubber seals, these are made of un-obtanium. If you find new, they are like finding a leprechaun.

    Keep us updated on how things are going. BTW, what part of the country are you in?

    Cheers,

    Ken Buchanan

  9. Dan,

    I've been on the road for couple of weeks so you had better believe I will be home. You could say a few honey-do's need to be caught up with. Meet me in Pasadena and I can show you my car itself and I'll have the cylinder heads here as well. One is done, the other I am about to dive in so you can see what needs to be done.

    Ken

  10. Dan,

    Keep in mind, if you have flat top pistons, the blower will be a disaster! Stock compression is 10.25:1, an R2 engine was 8:1. Either engine is prone to detonation, likely severe.

    To make any power (regardless whether R 1 or 2) you need to CAREFULLY port the heads but even more importantly un-shroud the valves. A good porting job doesn't end at the valve seat. Stock ports only flow around 135 cfm, if done right a mild port job and reshaping of the combustion chamber can increase the flow 25-40%. That is assuming you upgrade the intake valve to R3. For exhaust, stick with R 1/2, it's big enough.

    At that point, stepping up from the R 1/2 cam to the R 3 cam will release more power. Then you can actually see some benefit from headers and a manifold.

    Currently I am working on the heads, the lower end is ready for assembly. With .060" over dished pistons (19-20.5 cc), decked block (.035" squish) and heads milled .040" and chambers openned around the valves, I will get around 8.25:1 compression with a denser charge. What this will result in at the rear wheels, hard to say but if I can get near the original power with common pump gas, I'll be over the moon.

    Ken

  11. Dan,

    Yes, I bought R2962 about 16 months ago. It runs but the wrist pin on the number 8 cylinder is loose and cutting a groove in the cylinder wall. I am in the process of building another engine to swap in so I don't have an entire car half disassembled. Being another engine allows me to experiment and learn what really should be done to improve a Stude engine without ruining the numbers matching block. A couple of guys near me have been particularly helpfull and I would be glad to pass on what I have learned.

  12. TRUE,

    Lengths as follows;

    3 speed...45-25/32"

    Powershift...46-9/32"

    4 speed...51-29/32"

    4 speed is longer by 5-5/8". When I swap in the T10 I'll need to borrow a drive shaft stretcher!

    I wonder if anybody has confused a 3 speed driveshaft to the half inch longer Powershift driveshaft?

  13. Are you talking about the vacuum dash pot or do you have an electrical solenoid as well?

    If you have an electrically operated solenoid, its purpose is to raise the idle speed back to normal when the clutch for the a/c compressor engages due to the load from the a/c pump. If set right, your idle should be 600 RPM without the a/c on. The a/c kicks in and the idle should still be about 600 inspite of the higher load.

    As for my car, mine does not have one. I haven't really used the a/c once I found it's low on pressure, just cycled it to keep the juices flowing. I haven't noticed a big drop in RPM but then again it isn't pumping full pressure.

    Ken Buchanan

  14. I converted mine to a little Honda style battery, half as long as the "tractor" battery and half the weight.

    Has more reserve and CCA too. An old picture, but you get the idea.

    PowerSteeringHoses_old_007a.jpg

    Tom

    The group 51 R works really well, the only down side is making the bracket to hold the battery. When I did mine I also made it to hold the overflow bottle for the radiator. The smaller battery is about 7 lbs lighter as well.
  15. Thanks for the heads up Lew.

    The old pump was identified by Dave Thibeault but I couldn't find my notess from that phone con. It is definately a Carter, with 8 screws holding it together and Dave was of the opinion that it was a better pump. While searching around, I found Mancuso racing has a variety of rebuild kits meant to deal with ethanol corrupted fuels. Before I go that route, I want to get back with Dave and make sure I am ordering the right one if he doesn't have one himself to sell me. During holidays, you sometimes have to use something less for the short term.

  16. I bought these for my R1 and have so far been very happy; http://www.americastire.com/dtcs/findTireDetail.do?ra=searchTiresBySize.do&fl=&tc=HANPA7&c=0&rcz=91106&pc=10983&ar=75&rf=true&rd=15&rc=CALINT&cs=205

    Hankook claims the minimun rim width is 5.00" and they look to have a very nice shape. So far, at 700 miles, they look to be wearing evenly across the face. On top of that, the speedo reads pretty darn accurate, an indicated 40 shows 38 on all the different radar readouts around the area. Better than my wife's Camry.

  17. Well, after all that work two weeks ago and...it did help a little. Slowly it continued to improve, and then the fuel pump failed so the car has been dead for 4 days due to the urgency of the holiday. The fuel pump,wasn't the correct one to start with. When it failed, instead of filling the crank case, the gas came out a vent on the top. Initially, I thought I had an oil leak as the gas was washing old dried oil and grease off the cross member. As the leak worsened, there was an intermitent, overwhelming odor of gas and then the day after Christmas there was a minor flood running from the front of the car. Since the hoses were fresh I could easily clamp them off, slip the hoses off the hose barbs on the pump and plug them. One of the FLAPs I use could get me an Airtex 4227 so all is well for now.

    As for the long term, between talking with a local transmission builder and Jon Myer, I'm looking to get through with this trans as is until next fall. By then I should have a 2 post lift in my garage and then I intend to upgrade to a 200R4. While I have the trans out, I want to pull the engine and get it painted, when it was rebuilt in '78 the guy hot tanked the block and heads but didn't paint afterwards. While out, I'll also pop the freeze plugs and make sure the cooling passages are really clean. Also, I want to detail the engine bay and clean as best I can without damaging the original paint. Having a lift will be key to success.

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